How do you define career success, and how do you know when
you’ve attained it? Perhaps there’s a particular salary level you’d
like to reach, or maybe for you “career success” means working in your
dream job. But think a little deeper. Say you get that dream job - what
would it look like for you to reach your highest potential in that
position? Here at Cheetah Learning, we tend to define “success” a
little differently than the way most people use this term. With regard
to our students, we truly believe that their success is our
success.

That is to say, we find that the value you create for others
is a crucial part of your own career success. Regardless of your job
type or position, there are numerous ways you can leverage your
strengths to help others reach their personal and professional goals.
In this article, we’ll outline ways you can create more value for
others in four key dimensions of your professional and personal life:
work clients and other direct project beneficiaries; your supervisors
and your organization; your co-workers; and, outside of work, the
people you’re closest to in your life.

Many projects team members do not work
in the same location any
longer - even those working in the government sector. And even if they
are in
the same location, team members rely extensively on virtual
communication tools
rather than face to face communication. Using communication and
collaboration
technology tools is the norm - and we’re not even addressing all the
cool
software tools designed specifically to manage projects.

By now the myth that agile principles and practices are
incompatible with PMBOK® Guide standards has been thoroughly debunked.
Furthermore, Project Managers are increasingly recognizing a move
toward agile practices as a “best practice” in the PM field. According
to the 2011 CHAOS Manifesto from the Standish Group, agile projects
were shown to succeed three times more than non-agile or “waterfall”
projects.

Their report goes on to say that “the Agile process is the
universal remedy for software development project failure. Software
applications developed through the agile process have three times the
success rate of the traditional waterfall method and a much lower
percentage of time and cost overruns.” The report defined a successful
project in terms of being on budget, on time, and with all of the
planned features.

There once was a time when you could take management classes
in school, become a manager, and move up in the leadership ranks of
your company based on your ability to coordinate others’ knowledge and
efforts to achieve strategic objectives. Those days are coming to an
end.

"You are the average of the five people you spend the most
time with." – Jim Rohn

Take a minute to stop and think: who do you spend the most time with?
Write down the top five people with whom you spend the most time on a
day-to-day basis. Once you have your list, ask yourself: who are these
people? Are they ambitious, successful, and happy?

Lately, I have seen lot of arguments out there about why you shouldn’t
get your PMP credential. Why it doesn’t matter, why it is too expensive
to keep and maintain, and why you would be better off twiddling your
thumbs than bothering to go for it. On top of that, I have also noticed
an online presence that argues against an organized exam prep class for
a variety of reasons.

Rally Software provides leading software and services solutions that drive agility. Companies work with us to accelerate innovation, improve performance, and respond to evolving customer needs. Rally’s SaaS platform transforms the way organizations manage the software development lifecycle by...